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Police move to exhume graves of Mandela’s children

Workers break into compound of South Africa ex-leader’s grandson after court order

A man forces open the gate of the property of Mandla Mandela, grandson of ailing former Nelson Mandela, following a court hearing clearing the way to remove the remains of the former leader’s children from Mvezo, the birthplace of Nelson Mandela. Photograph: Siegfried Modola/Reuters

Workers armed with pick-axes and a court order broke into the compound of Nelson Mandela’s grandson today to exhume the remains of three of the anti-apartheid hero’s children.

It is a new twist in a row that has split South Africa’s most famous family.

Within hours of a ruling against Mandla Mandela by the high court in Mthatha, 700 km south of Johannesburg, police and hearses arrived at Mandla’s complex in the nearby village of Mvezo, where the three Mandela offspring are buried.

The bodies were initially laid to rest in the family cemetery in Qunu, the village where the 94-year-old Mandela - now criticially ill in hospital - spent most of his childhood. But they were moved two years ago by Mandla to Mvezo, where he serves as the official head of the clan.

The spat over the site of the Mandela family graves has transfixed and appalled South Africa’s 53 million people as they contemplate the reality that the father of the post-apartheid “Rainbow Nation” will not be with them forever.

Mandla has not made clear why he moved the remains the 20 km to Mvezo, where Mr Mandela was born, but many South Africans believe it is part of a campaign to ensure the country’s first black president is buried there.

Mandla has already built a visitor centre at Mvezo and a memorial to his grandfather, a Nobel Peace laureate and one of the 20th century’s most admired political figures.

Last week, a rival faction of the family led by Mr Mandela’s oldest daughter, Makaziwe, sought a court order compelling the bodies to be returned to Qunu. Local media reports have suggested the initial movement of the bodies by Mandla may have been carried out without the required cultural customs being observed, and police have opened an investigation to determine whether this was done illegally.

Mandla, a 39-year-old Member of Parliament for the ruling African National Congress (ANC), was not present when a posse of police, workmen and undertakers entered the Mvezo complex to carry out the court order. However, a statement released by his office said he would not stand in their way.

“Nkosi Zwelivelile has on numerous occasions indicated that he is not against the repatriation of the remains in question,” the statement said, calling Mandla by his official clan title. It also condemned “a lot of allegations and dirt thrown in his direction”.

Makaziwe was present at Mvezo but did not talk to reporters, who were pushed back by police. After the court decision, her only words to reporters were: “This is a private family matter.”

The three Mandela children buried in Mvezo are an infant girl who died in 1948, a boy, Thembi, who died in a car crash in 1969, and Makgatho, who died of an AIDS-related illness in 2005. In all, Mandela fathered six children from his three marriages.